Pokerstars.com EPT Copenhagen - Day 1A - At A Glance

[Djinn]

Morning all,

Danafish and I are preparing to bring you the live updates from the Scandinavian Open (if it's still called that) all day - no - all week, for your reading delectation.

Today's play will see the sold-out event commencing at 2pm (that's 1pm UK time) with the first day's players taking on a host of, well, each other, in the comfortable surroundings of the SAS Radisson, safe from the elements which at the moment are mainly cold here in Copenhagen, Denmark.

We really meant to go along to the Pokerstars welcome party/Scandinavian poker Awards last night, but promptly fell asleep and have no idea what happened there.  But we do know that the city looks cool, this tournament is unbelievably popular and we even have a preliminary player list which we will be sharing with you in about a half hour's time.

[Djinn]

Play not really showing signs of starting yet... a lot of milling around in the lobby/casino/hallway areas.  Spotted Hendon Mobster Barny Boatman in the throng, as well as multiple Scandinavian-award-winning Annette Obrestad.  The full list of Winners:

Best Live Player - Gus Hansen, Denmark
- award presented by EPT media co-ordinator Mad Harper.

Best Online Player - Jonas "Nebuchad" Danielsson, Sweden
- award presented by EPT Season 3 Copenhagen winner Magnus Petersson

Best Female - Annette Obrestad, Norway
- award presented by William Thorson

Rookie of the Year - Trond Erik Eidsvig, Norway
- award presented by Thor Hansen

Best Performance - Annette Obrestad, Norway
- award presented by PokerStars Nordic blogger Lina Olofsson

Lifetime Achievement Award - Thor Hansen
- award created and presented by Daniel Negreanu

And there's more at www.scandinavianpokerawards.com if your curiosity has been piqued as to which Norwegians, Swedes and Danes will be terrorising the field today.

[danafish]

Ok, we've successfully navigated our way through the inexplicably slow press registration queue and on to the very nice press room, and we now find ourselves in position to post the most up-to-date list we can find for Day 1a. Here it is:

Michael Aadal Olsen
Jan Aagren
Jarle Aasen
Nikolaj Adamsen
Rasmus Åkerblom
Kenno Albrechtsen
Alex Amarre
Mads Andersen
Ole Andersen
Michael Andersen
Mathias Andersen
Thomas Askeland Østerholt
Jesper Askholt
David Atrubin
Ziv Bachar
Ryan Badii
Allan Bække
Gesi Bason
Anders Bekhøj Hansen
Karim Bennani Smires
Claus Bentzen
Kim Bentzen
Dennis Bjerregaard Jørensen
Martin Bjerring Hansen
Lars Blom
Barny Boatman
Noah Boeken
Sidsel Helle Boesen
Lars Bønding
Alf Braam
David Brandberg Svensson
Ola Brandborn
Nicolas Briant
Frederik Brink Jensen
Nhi Bui
Fuat Can
Rich Caplan
Anthony Chatelain
Fawaz Chawki
Bill Chen
Thomas Christensen
Tobias Christensen
Thomas Christiansen
Henrik Christoffersen
Adam Clark
Terry Cook
Daniele Cuomo
Bruce Dacko
Jonas Danielsson
David Davidsen
Michael DeGilio
Camilla Denning
Ib Djervils
Børge Dypvik
Peter Eastgate
Lars Egil Nielsen
Peter Eichhardt
Trond Erik Eidsvig
Wim Emo
Morten Erlandsen
Hans Erlandsson
Andrew Ferguson
Luca Ferrario
Peter Fischer
Thomas Fjellheim
Karl-Johan Fösker
Marcus Friman
Ole Gammelfjord
Torben Garbers
Bulent Gormez
Paul Grabowski
Michael Greco
Magnus Grønnevik
Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier
Jerzy Hajdamowicz
Per Hansen
Christoffer Egemo Hansen
Lars Hansen
Dennis Naci Hansen
Gus Hansen
Tommy Hansen
Jens Hansen
Stefan Hansen
Thor Hansen
Christian Harder
Peter Hauerslev
Rasmus Hede Nielsen
Tom-Even Heimstad
Pasi Heinanan
Juha Helppi
Christian Hemmingsen
Anders Henriksson
Karl Hevrøy
Philip Hilm
Flemming Hilt
Andreas Hoivold
Anders-Petter Holm
Tobias Holmeide
Christian Honoré
David Hopkins
Marcin Horecki
Carl Hostrup-Pedersen
Jesper Hougaard
Jan Iversen
Steven Jacobs
Nikolaus Jedlicka
Brian Jensen
Morten Lund Jensen
Lasse Jeppesen
Morten Johansen
Simon Johansson
Torbjörn Jonson
Kaj Jørgensen
Mel Judah
Peter Kalsen Petersen
Casey Kastle
Eero Kekäläinen
Mudasser Khan
Davidi Kitai
Stephan Kjerstad
Kris Kjøndal
Jonas Klausen
Christian Klein
Morten Klein
Marcel Kloof
Marek Kolk
Mohamed kowssarie
Alexander Kravchenko
Steffan Ruben Kristoffersen
Matthias Kurschner
Michael Kweik
Eric Larcheveque
Tom Larsen
Daniel Larsson
Jason Laso
Nikolas Liakos
Michele Limongi
Marcus Lind
Johnny Lodden
Torben Løkkegaard
Jeppe Lundsgaard
Sander Lyloff
Kenneth Lyons
Lars Juul Madsen
Mikkel Madsen
Andrea Manganelli
Reijo Manninen
Jose Martin
Dag Martin Mikkelsen
Anders Martinsen
Riccardo Mazzitelli
Jesper Mertz
Dario Minieri
Sorel Mizzi
Peyman Mohammadzadeh
Jonas Molander
Joseph Morneau
Sigbjørn Mortueit
Klaus Münster
Daniel Negreanu
Kresten Nielsen
Martin Nielsen
Claus Nielsen
Jeppe Nielsen
Dario Nittolo
Lennart Nyström
Annette Obrestad
Henrik Olsen
Egill Ormarsson
Christina Orth
Alan Otte
Piotr Paruszewski
Tommy Pavlicek
Ulrik Pedersen
Andreas Per Ragnar Davidsson
Jose Pereira
Thomas Petersen
Jesper Petersen
Pehr Petersson
Magnus Pettersson
Georgios Pittas
Jaime Ponte
John Poynton
Helge Rahbek Pedersen
Mats Rahmn
Mikael Rasmussen
Mattias Ressner
Runar Runarsson
Pier Ruscalla
Sebastian Ruthenberg
Daniel Ryan
Renee Schmidt
Jospeh Serock
Danny Silk
Ulrica Skönnemark
Leroy Soesman
Bengt Sonnert
Frederik Sørensen
Jeppe Sørensen
Anton Stendahl
Lars Stokhave
Michael Stryhn
Peter Swartling
Matin Talebi
Julian Thew
Peter Thomsen
Christian Toksværd
Stig Top-Rasmussen
Stale Torsvik
Niels Peter Toubro
Claus Tversted
Martin Vallo
Thierry van der Berg
Thijs van Tilburg
Ville Wahlbeck
Roar Wang
Martin Wendt
Viktor Wessman
Anders Wijk
Thomas Wissner
Jannick Wrang
Jacques Zaicik
Yaron Zeev Malki

We will be attempting to find some breakfast for the next 20 minutes or so. Play is due to start at 2pm. Take your picks now! I'm going for Christensen, Christensen and Christiansen.

[Djinn]

Spotted:  Jeff Kimber on the way to a press frenzy around him... the Ladbrokes lounge with its promise of 'fruit, girls and table football' beckons.  Amusing anecdote of the day - which also incidentally gives us another 'British Player' to follow:  Andreas Hoivold was born in the UK.  As Jaffa says, "He said he was born in Sunderland which wound me up because I'm from Newcastle."

Interesting table lineups plucked from the superhelpful Pokerstars list thing we now get a la the Raab system:

TABLE 23
 
Peyman Mohammadzadeh
Juha Helppi
Ulrica Skönnemark
Paul Grabowski
Anders Henriksson
Sander Lyloff   (Ladbrokes have this big sign up offering a competition to WIN 5% of SANDER LYLOFF which I thought was a cool prize.  Wonder if he knows)
Kresten Nielsen
Daniel Larsson
Johnny Lodden
Christina Orth

TABLE 31

Mel Judah
Lars Blom
Christian Klein
Stig Top-Rasmussen
Rasmus Åkerblom
Leroy Soesman
Barny Boatman
Gus Hansen
Tom-Even Heimstad
Jeppe Nielsen

TABLE Famous Young Norwegians

Stefan Hansen
Thierry van der Berg
Mikkel Madsen
Jens Hansen
Annette Obrestad
Wim Emo
Dag Martin Mikkelsen
Runar Runarsson
Andreas Hoivold
Peter Swartling

[danafish]

And we already have an unfortunate early OUTage in the shape of Sorel Mizzi. Aces v Kenneth Lyons' Queens were no good - not sure when the chips went in as I just caught the tail end of it, but there was a raggy flop and turn, and a Queen on the river. Photos to follow as soon as Floppy reminds me of the gallery login details, which my laptop has mysteriously eaten...

[danafish]

ElkY has doubled up his relative short stack. He moved in apparently for the third hand in a row, this time with pocket Sixes, and was called by Stars qualifier Nikolaj Adamsen with . A probably quite painful for Adamsen board later, and it was Adamsen who was short.

In fact a couple hands later he open-shoves the flop. Be-dreadlocked Dutchman Marcel Kloof really, really considers it, dwelling up with all the sighing, head-on-table, banging chips around trimmings, but ultimately passes (pocket Kings, I'm told). To Adamsen's horror, Mateyboy calls without a moment's hesitation. Matey holds a set of Eights to Adamsen's set of Sixes, and he's walking off before the turn and river confirm it.

Some breaktime chipcounts:

Adam Clark - 9k
Juha Helppi - 9k
Sander Lyloff - 6k
Johnny Lodden - 9.5k
Noah Boeken - 6k
Mads Andersen - 8.8k
Michael Greco - 13k
Mel Judah - 8.5k

[Djinn]

Juha Helppi, Finnish poker star and leading man in many of Mr. Eidsvig’s movies (dressed currently as Mr. Blue) is sitting opposite Johnny Lodden (last year’s Online Player of the Year).  They don’t appear too shy of getting involved in the early levels – surprise surprise – and just now Lodden bet out 450 from the small blind (where he’d called Helppi’s preflop raise) on a flop.  Stone-faced dwell; call.
Turn:   Now 1,350 the bet from Lodden, a sizeable chunk of the 10k stack really for the 50/100 level, and Helppi declines to call that time. 

[Djinn]

What with no connection for most of the last level, I have saved up lots of interesting, if slightly outdated stories, which I am about to share with y'all.  But first, to show good faith in the connection coming back - the full counts from about 4 tables counted with my own blurry eyes during the break:

1201 etc  Table 32

Dennis Bjerregaard Jørensen -- 4,525
Karl-Johan Fösker -- 13,000
Tom Larsen -- 15,400
Michele Limongi -- 14,600
Thijs van Tilburg -- 7,550
Ole Andersen -- 10,650
Renee Schmidt -- 5,875
Alex Amarre -- 8,350
Karim Bennani Smires -- 4,750
Jarle Aasen -- 13,300

1901 etc. Table 39

Rasmus Hede Nielsen -- 14,200
Bruce Dacko -- 6,150
Mathias Andersen -- 17,475
Michael Aadal Olsen -- 12,600
Bengt Sonnert -- 7,200
Fuat Can -- 12,500
Thomas Askeland Østerholt -- 10,475
Stale Torsvik -- 6,700
Marcus Lind -- 4,625

2001 etc. Table 40

Stephan Kjerstad -- 13,000
Børge Dypvik -- 11,800
 -
 -
Viktor Wessman -- 14,150
Jaime Ponte -- 11,300
Danny Silk -- 11,625
Daniel Ryan -- 8,700
Steven Jacobs -- 9,000


2201 etc. Table 42

Carl Hostrup-Pedersen -- 2,000
Thor Hansen -- 11,600
David Hopkins -- 10,150
Casey Kastle -- 10,950
Lennart Nyström -- 11,000
Jose Pereira -- 6,300
Morten Klein -- 12,550
Piotr Paruszewski -- 14,700
Martin Wendt -- 9,100
Trond Erik Eidsvig -- 10,550

[Djinn]

Per Hansen (pictured) won a pretty nice pot early doors with the old river check-raise.  The board was standing when I moseyed over to the table.  The pot looked to be around 2k and it was checked to Thomas Christiansen, who bet three blue 1k chips.  Pretty quickly he was facing an all-in check-raise for another 3k (just under) from his opponent.  He made a pain face for a good minute or two, before eventually thinking better of it and passing, leaving himself around 5k.  Fingers in the river-flavoured cookie-jar, perhaps - or genuine dilemma..?

[Djinn]

STAREWATCH

Mel Judah - Are You Looking At Him?



Barny Boatman - Actually Looking At Him



Jonas Molander - Not enough coffee



Jason Laso - Too much coffee (plus bonus sub-pic Hair of the Day Dennis Naci Hansen in seat One)

[danafish]

Gus Hansen has arrived, some time between the start of the tournament and me wandering by his table just a little while ago...

Anyway, he's seated next to Barny Boatman, right next to the rail, and there's a crowd now constantly lurking by their table.

I caught the end of a hand between the two of them. The board read and they both checked it (I understand there had been some betting on the flop, during which the crowd got a little bigger). The river comes and Barny bets 300. "That wasn't very much," says Hansen. "It's about what this hand's worth," says Barny. Gus raises to 1275 and Barny calls, but mucks when Gus shows the . The crowd remains, probably hoping they'll do something funny. They don't. They're laughing about it anyway.

[danafish]

Eric Larcheveque is OUT.

Annette Obrestad is also OUT to Runar Runarsson. She called a reraise. Flop was K-4-2 with two clubs; he bet, she called. Turn - ; he bet, she called. River was ; he moved in covering her, and mucked when he showed A-K. BA Kildalen saw her hand but won't tell. She didn't have a King.

Johnny Lodden is similarly OUT, as evidenced by him walking towards the exit.

[Djinn]

Fawaz Chawki (pictured top) just re-raised Peter Eichhardt preflop from 600 to 1,500.  After answering the traditional, "How much have you got left?" question, Eichhardt called.
Flop:   Check to Chawki who pushed all in for around 6k, saying, "I'm ready to go."  I don't know about you, but when I hear that kind of thing I assume they are anything but ready to head to the exit...
"Have you tied your shoes?" asks Eichhardt inexplicably, before passing and getting the free show of the monstrous in Chawki's hand.

[Djinn]

LEADERWATCH

I needed look no further than this table right near the entrance to the tournament area - where sits a totally relaxed looking Joseph Serock, young US player and chip leader to the tune of just under 55,000.  Swap his chair for a La-Z-Boy and his clothes for a Hugh Hefner style bathrobe, and this might be the most comfortable looking player in the tournament, with a very nice stack going into the dinner break (in 15 minutes).

[danafish]

Dag Martin Mikkelsen is OUT, in that terrible inescapey sort of way.

To his right, my Name Of The Day Wim Emo checks the  flop. He bets 1200, and Mr EMo raises to 2500. He calls.

The turn is the . Again, Mr Emo checks. Now Mikkelsen bets 4500, and Mr Emo instantly raises to 10,000. Mikkelsen moves in for a few k more, and Mr Emo calls.

Mikkelsen -

Emo -

River -  totally inconsequential but it's .